Camino is like a box of chocolates...

You never know what you are going to get. The trail is nice and wide hard packed dirt and the next minute you are standing on a narrow rocky path in the middle of some farm field wondering if you are in the right place. The Camino is este' duro; hard. Right when you are rolling along; you hit a really tough section that you wonder how long it will last and right about then, it gets easy and then hard and then in between and then... You are constantly looking for signs that come in multiple flavors. The best are pillars or signs that have the yellow shell on a blue background. The worst are yellow spray painted arrows painted anywhere, walls, power poles, the back of a guard rail on a street. Sometimes close and sometimes far apart. I am in Estrella tonight having put in a full day from Pamplona.

It was cool I came across 3 people I was on the train with from Bayonne who started from St Jean the day before me. They were amazed I did the pass out of St Jean on a bike! ;-))))) Roger was from Sweden and was carrying two days of clothes. It was day 3 ;-) I didn't sit next to him on the bench long to have our picture taken... I also ran into Anders and Bridgette from Finland at lunch  and was great to see them. Pix with George & Bridgette later. Today started out easy and got really hard as we climbed up this ridge with windmills and sculpture artwork dedicated to Pilgrims. It was beautiful up there and such a accomplishment to reach the top on this cobblestone, steep trail. Quite a few people out on the Camino this morning until lunch and then I got ahead of what many were doing for today that started from Pamplona and I was nearly by myself this afternoon. I felt like I am settling into the Camino and it's rhythm. It's harder than I expected so far and the trail is everything under the sun; but maybe that is the way it's supposed to be?

In one of the more poignant moments, I came across this small, what looked like a church in the middle of nowhere. Turned out there was just an altar inside with thousands of notes from Pilgrims in all languages with whatever, blessimgs, asking for something, telling a story. Memories of lost ones.... I left a note..

Dave